2006 CMUcam2 Code

[Kevin Watson]

Originally Posted by nheft

We at team 533 are seeing two distinct intermittent startup error conditions that are unique to the frc_camera_s code. (haven't spent much time with the bells-and-whistles version). These are problems that do not occur with the IFI default code. The camera code we are using is the 1/11/2006 10:45 PM date stamp.

When the RC starts up correctly (about 90% of the time), the camera handler and servo tracker work perfectly. With the default_routine() call uncommented, we are also able to control other PWM putputs from the joysticks, etc.

The other 10% of the time we get one of two kinds of errors.

The first error is the "Code Error", similar to that reported by team 1216. The Code error only occurs at power-up, not after hitting a reset. When we see a Code Error, a robot reset clears the error.

The second error, far more disturbing than the "Code Error" condition, is one in which there is no code error but the data the user uP receives from the master is corrupted - for example Joystick 1 X and Y data fields are reversed. The disturbing thing about this condition is that everything looks normal on the RC LED's so we would not know the problem is happening until the match starts. Also, the RC does not recover from this case by pressing the reset button. Only cycling power (and waiting another 5 seconds if the backup battery is connected) clears the problem.
I disabled Tracking_Info_Terminal(), Camera_Handler() and Servo_Track() in Process_Data_From_Master_uP() and still get the startup errors.

I spoke to Tom Watson at IFI and he said that if we can't duplicate this with the IFI default code then it must be something in the camera code.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I'd suspect that you've got a questionable robot controller. The addition of the camera code may be pushing executable code into an area of memory that may have access time issues. Call up IFI again and ask to speak with Mark, who is on the software side of the house. Hopefully he can arrange a swap and put your RC on a debugger to determine what's happening.

-Kevin